Coronavirus: Childhood video of Queen marks lockdown birthday

Buckingham Palace has posted archive footage of the Queen as a child to mark her 94th birthday, which she is spending in lockdown.

The Royal Family Twitter account thanked the public for the birthday messages as it posted the family video.

“To those of you also celebrating your birthdays today at home, with or without your loved ones – we send you many happy returns,” it said.

The Queen is spending the day with Prince Philip at Windsor Castle.

The archive film shows the monarch as a young Princess Elizabeth playing with a pram as a toddler, on a seesaw and dancing on a yacht with her sister Princess Margaret:

The Palace said the Queen’s birthday would not be marked in any special way.

But the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s baby son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor joined in with a video call to his great-grandmother.

Harry and Meghan are now living in Los Angeles after quitting as working royals.

Other family members will have also telephoned and video-called the Queen privately to deliver their birthday messages.

Like the rest of the UK, the royals are staying away from each other as they observe social distancing rules during the coronavirus pandemic.

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But senior royals were toasting the monarch on social media.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, staying at Anmer Hall in Norfolk with their children, wished the Queen a “very happy” 94th birthday on Twitter.

They posted an image of Catherine and William with the monarch at the Chelsea Flower Show last year:

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall also sent birthday wishes online, sharing photos of Charles with his mother from when he was a baby to more recently:

Charles, who has recovered from coronavirus, is at Birkhall in Aberdeenshire with Camilla.

The Queen’s other children – the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex – are in their own separate homes around the country.

On her birthday, the monarch also sent a message of condolence to the people of Nova Scotia after a gunman killed 18 people in 12-hour rampage starting on Saturday.

The bells of Westminster Abbey stayed silent on her birthday for the first time in more than a decade, because the central London church is closed during the lockdown.

And there was no gun salute to mark her birthday for what is thought to be the first time in her reign.

The Queen decided the celebratory display, which usually takes place at Hyde Park and the Tower of London, would not be “appropriate” because of the pandemic.

Trooping the Colour, which marks the Queen’s official birthday in June, has also been cancelled. No alternative is expected to be put in its place.

The Queen has already stressed the importance of maintaining the coronavirus lockdown, saying “by keeping apart we keep others safe”.

Prince Philip, 98, issued a rare public statement on Monday, thanking key workers for keeping essential services running during the coronavirus outbreak.

For more on this story go to: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-52367177